The connecting record
shownGame of Thrones
Sandor Clegane killed Gregor Clegane in Game of Thrones.
Series only, on the stairs of the burning Red Keep. A sword through the stomach did nothing, repeated stabs to neck and chest did nothing, and a dagger through the eye only bought him the grip to carry them both over the broken wall into the fire below.
What each of them is ranked on
The killer · Sandor Clegane · rank 8
the Hound
Stepped between his brother and the unhorsed Ser Loras Tyrell in the lists and then blocked every savage blow Gregor aimed at his own hound's-head helm, staying on the defensive the whole way through and never once cutting at his brother's unprotected face, and then went to one knee mid-exchange because the king's voice carried over the crowd. The record here is unusually thick and almost all of it depicted: Renly Baratheon put down on the first day of the Hand's tourney and Jaime Lannister on the second pass of the next, led off the field unable to see out of his own helm; a rioting crowd beaten back off Sansa Stark's horse in the capital; Beric Dondarrion opened from sword to shoulder in a trial by combat fought with a burning shield strapped to the arm that held it, by a man who will not go near a fire. Jaime, counting who could physically overpower him, arrives at both Cleganes. He enters the story six or seven years old and already ruined, and leaves the ranked span cut open at the crossroads inn, begging a girl to finish it. Neither end of him is his own doing.
statedA Game of Thrones · ch. 29 (Sansa II)
Tells Sansa that Gregor shoved the side of his face into the coals of a brazier — "I was younger than you, six, maybe seven" — and held him there until three grown men pulled him off.
shownA Game of Thrones · ch. 29 (Sansa II)
Unhorses Renly Baratheon on the first day of the Hand's tourney.
shownA Game of Thrones · ch. 30 (Eddard VII)
Beats Jaime Lannister on the second pass after nearly losing the first, and Jaime is led off the field unable to see through his mangled helm.
All 16 citations
shownA Game of Thrones · ch. 30 (Eddard VII)
Steps between Gregor and the downed Loras Tyrell, stops the savage blows Gregor then aims at his own hound's-head helm without once cutting at his brother's unprotected face, kneels when King Robert shouts, and is given the championship by Loras without a final tilt.
statedA Storm of Swords · ch. 21 (Jaime III)
Jaime rates him among the strongest men alive in Westeros, and believes his own speed and skill would be the answer to it.
shownA Game of Thrones · ch. 49 (Eddard XIV)
Kills Cayn among Eddard Stark's household guard during the arrest in the Red Keep.
shownA Clash of Kings · ch. 41 (Tyrion IX)
Cuts the rioting crowd away from Sansa Stark when she is nearly pulled from the saddle, and gets her back inside the walls.
shownA Storm of Swords · ch. 34 (Arya VI)
Fights Beric Dondarrion's burning sword in the hollow hill with his own shield alight and strapped to his arm, and cuts through blade, mail and shoulder.
shownA Storm of Swords · ch. 52 (Arya XI)
Kills several mounted Frey men outside the castle during the Red Wedding, in the mud and floodwater among the burning pavilions, and knocks Arya Stark senseless to stop her running back into it.
shownA Storm of Swords · ch. 74 (Arya XIII)
Kills Polliver at the inn at the crossroads and holds off the Tickler until Arya finishes him, coming out of it wounded in the thigh, ribs, neck and face, with the stump of his burned ear sliced off.
shownA Storm of Swords · ch. 74 (Arya XIII)
Begs Arya for the gift of mercy as the wounds go bad, and she leaves him under a tree beside the Trident.
statedA Feast for Crows · ch. 31 (Brienne VI)
The Elder Brother of the Quiet Isle tells Brienne he buried the man himself, and that at the end he wept from the pain and asked for a quick death.
shownGame of Thrones · S01E05 “The Wolf and the Lion”
Steps between Gregor and the unhorsed Loras Tyrell, trades blows with his brother, and stops the moment Robert orders it.
shownGame of Thrones · S03E05 “Kissed by Fire”
With his shield on fire he cuts through Beric Dondarrion's flaming sword, armour and shoulder, and Thoros of Myr prays the man back afterwards.
shownGame of Thrones · S04E01 “Two Swords”
Takes on five of Gregor's men alone in a taproom and, put on the floor with a dagger at his own throat, forces the hand aside and drives the man's head onto his own blade over and over.
shownGame of Thrones · S04E10 “The Children”
Loses a hand-to-hand fight to Brienne of Tarth, who bites off part of his ear, batters him with a rock and puts him over a cliff edge.
The victim · Gregor Clegane · rank 2
the Mountain That Rides
Seven feet of him and more, nearer eight, carrying a six-foot greatsword in one hand and a shield on the other arm. Jaime Lannister, counting the men who could overpower him physically, arrives at both Clegane brothers and thinks the elder one's strength is not a human quantity. What settles the placement is that all of it happens inside somebody's point-of-view chapter: Ser Hugh of the Vale taken through an unfastened gorget in a joust, a stallion's neck half severed with one swing in a temper, a horse speared out from under him on the Green Fork with no effect whatever on the rider. Then a trial by combat he wins from flat on his back, full of holes from a poisoned spear, shouting what he did to Elia Martell loudly enough for the whole gathering to hear. Poison thickened with sorcery finished him in the end and took its time about it. The thing his brother later carried over a Red Keep wall was Qyburn's work rather than the man.
shownA Game of Thrones · ch. 30 (Eddard VII)
Stands well over seven feet, closer to eight, with arms as thick as the trunks of small trees.
statedA Storm of Swords · ch. 21 (Jaime III)
Jaime, thinking of the few men stronger than himself, settles on both Cleganes, and reckons the Mountain's strength like nothing human.
shownA Game of Thrones · ch. 62 (Tyrion VIII)
Wields a two-handed greatsword in a single hand while carrying a shield, and commands the van and left of Tywin's line on the Green Fork.
All 13 citations
shownA Game of Thrones · ch. 62 (Tyrion VIII)
Karstark spearmen kill his stallion under him in the first charge and he fights on unhurt.
shownA Game of Thrones · ch. 29 (Sansa II)
His lance rides up in his second joust of the Hand's tourney and goes through Ser Hugh of the Vale's throat.
shownA Game of Thrones · ch. 30 (Eddard VII)
Unhorsed by Loras Tyrell, he kills his own stallion with one blow of his sword and goes for the unprepared Loras until Sandor Clegane blocks him.
shownA Storm of Swords · ch. 70 (Tyrion X)
Fights Oberyn Martell as Cersei's champion in Tyrion's trial by combat, in heavy plate behind an oaken shield.
shownA Storm of Swords · ch. 70 (Tyrion X)
Wounded repeatedly at the joints of his armour and brought down, he takes hold of Oberyn on the ground, smashes in his face, and shouts that he killed Elia Martell and her son.
statedA Storm of Swords · ch. 72 (Jaime IX)
Pycelle judges the spear to have been poisoned; the wounds mortify and Tywin's order to save him fails.
statedA Feast for Crows · ch. 7 (Cersei II)
Qyburn concludes the venom was manticore poison thickened with sorcery so that the dying would be drawn out rather than quick.
shownA Dance with Dragons · ch. 65 (Cersei II)
Qyburn presents a knight eight feet tall in white enamelled plate as Cersei's champion, and the man carries her into the Red Keep.
shownGame of Thrones · S04E08 “The Mountain and the Viper”
Puts his thumbs into Oberyn Martell's eyes and crushes the head between his hands.
shownGame of Thrones · S08E05 “The Bells”
Fights Sandor Clegane on the stairs of the burning Red Keep, keeps coming with a sword through the chest and a blade through the eye, and goes over the broken wall with him.
What this does not settle
One death in one work. It is the only place the record puts these two in the same room, and it is evidence about that meeting and nothing wider — not a general matchup, not a rematch, and not a ranking of its own.
The ladder above it is argued from everything either of them has been shown doing; this page is argued from one citation.
Where the two disagree, the disagreement is the point, and it stays visible rather than being resolved by whichever of them happens to be on this page.